Music Theory

Music theory for producers: scales, chords, cadences, modes, song form, ear training, and arrangement — 12 chapters from fundamentals to advanced harmony.

1. 1. Sound, Scales, and the Language Where music theory comes from — sound, the harmonic series, building a scale, and the vocabulary that makes it all make sense.
2. 2. Your First Chords: Major, Minor, and the Dominant What makes a chord major or minor, why the V chord is special, and the two cadences that power most of Western music.
3. 3. The 10 Chord Toolkit: Part 1 Secondary dominants, Hey Jude, inversions, and the chords that take you beyond I-IV-V-vi.
4. 4. The 10 Chord Toolkit: Part 2 Completing all 10 chords — the ii, iii, bVII, iv, and how to hear where each one sits.
5. 5. Song Form and Arrangement How songs are organized into sections — and why recognizing form is what separates seasoned songwriters from rookies.
6. 6. Ear Training: Finding Tonic, Hearing Cadences How to identify the key of a song by ear — and what to listen for when the harmony refuses to sit still.
7. 7. The Four-Chord Progression and Borrowed Chords Why four chords power most of pop music, what happens when songs borrow from the parallel key, and the Picardy third.
8. 8. Voice Leading and the Caterpillar Why smooth chord motion sounds better than jumping — and the crawling exercise that connects every chord in the key.
9. 9. Diminished Chords, Extensions, and Other Chameleons The symmetry of diminished chords, why one shape resolves to eight places, and how shell voicings say more with less.
10. 10. Rhythm: Counting, Meter, and Feel Beats, measures, time signatures, syncopation, swing, and why rhythm is something you feel in your body.
11. 11. Modes (Without the Mystique) What modes actually are, why they're simpler than people think, and the ones that matter most for practical music-making.
12. 12. Blues, and the Stuff We Didn't Cover Blues harmony, the blues scale, tritone substitution, and a roadmap for everything that comes next.
13. 34. Music Theory: Counting, Rhythm, Form, and Orchestration Fundamental music theory — counting, rhythm, song form, and orchestration.
14. 35. Music Theory: Scales and Harmony Scales, intervals, chords, and harmonic relationships.

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